DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-regime protesters in several cities Friday, killing at least 13 people, including two in the capital of Damascus, activists said.

The continuing crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad came as his regime accused US Ambassador Robert Ford, who visited the tinderbox city of Hama Thursday, of inciting violence.

Opposition activists, speaking separately by telephone, reported five deaths in the central city of Homs, two in the capital’s commercial neighborhood Medan and six in the area of Dmeir, east of Damascus.

In Homs, “at least five people were killed in the Al-Khalidya neighborhood by security forces who opened fire against demonstrators,” said Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for Human Rights.

“Security forces shot dead two demonstrators in the neighborhood of Medan in Damascus, east of the capital,” he added.

London-based Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said six people were killed in the area of Dmeir and that at least 24 people had been injured in Homs, some gravely.

Rahman said at least 450,000 Syrians rallied after Friday prayers in Hama under the banner “No to dialogue” with Assad’s regime.

Both US envoy Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier visited Hama on Thursday.

On Friday, the regime accused Ford of meeting “saboteurs” there and inciting anti-Assad protests.

“The US ambassador met with saboteurs in Hama … who erected checkpoints, cut traffic and prevented citizens from going to work,” an interior ministry statement said.

“The ambassador incited these saboteurs to violence, to demonstrate and to refuse dialogue” with the government, it added.

The foreign ministry called Ford’s presence in Hama “obvious proof of the implication of the United States in the ongoing events, and of their attempts to increase (tensions), which damage Syria’s security and stability.”

In Paris, foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Chevallier went to Hama “to show France’s engagement with the victims, the civilian population.”

Elsewhere, security forces used live rounds against protesters in the coastal city of Banias.

“Protesters left the mosques in the southern districts of the city and dozens were arrested,” Abdel Rahman said.

Further north on the coast, in Latakia, more than 1,000 protesters were dispersed as they left Al-Rahman mosque, an activist there said.

In Aleppo, a regime stronghold, “thousands of people rallied at Seif al-Dawla and Salheddine. They were attacked by security forces and a pro-regime militia,” a witness said.

Protests also took place in Saqba and Jdeidet Artuz, while 7,000 protesters filed through Qatana north of Damascus, activists said.